Mack "Kentucky" Nichols
Early Life Mack Nichols was born to Jack and Belle Nichols on January 15, 1919 in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Less than a week after his birth, the Nichols family returned to their home in Louisville, Kentucky, where the family had a farm. Nichols grew up working on the farm and often was sought after to repair machinery of all types, as the young boy had shown abnormal skill in repairing vehicles and farming machinery. In his teens, Mack became facinated with medicine due to his father, a former combat medic who saw service in World War I. A result of this was the young Nichols quickly took to learning as much as possible about medicine, often working alongside doctors in the city of Louisville as an intern to learn as much as possible about the field. His brother Curtis, who was born in 1923, was taught this by his elder brother as well, thus the two boys had learned valuable skills that could easily get them jobs and money during the Great Depression. They worked as a form of backwoods medicine providers, going from house to house on the farms for much less of a cost then normal doctors would charge and thus keeping the family afloat. Mack had also developed during this time a facination with the military, as it seemed like a sure fire way out of the rural south, as well as a possible way to gain even more experience in the medical field. His father's advice was to join the Navy so he would at least have three meals a day and a bed to sleep in. Military Service Mack Nichols enlisted in the United States Navy in October of 1937 at the age of 18. He passed basic training and his corpsman training at the top of his class, and was noted as being the first one to take initiative and think outside of regular options to solve a problem, it was also where he earned his nickname Kentucky, due to his heavy accent. His first assignment was aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia (BB-48) as a Hospitalman Apprentice 2nd Class, during the first three years of his naval service he was commended several times for his outstanding service and treatment of patients. He was promoted first to Hospitalman Apprentice 1st Class in 1938 and then later to Pharmacist's Mate 3rd Class in December of 1940. He reenlisted for another three years in the Naval Service, hoping to possibly make a career out of it as he had grown attached to his ship and to his crew mates who he had served alongside for the past three years. He was onboard the West Virginia on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Over the next two and a half hours, Kentucky, after pulling several severely wounded men off the ship and transferring them to a nearby tug boat, went back onboard the sinking West Virginia to carry or drag nearly a dozen badly wounded men off the ship, while under fire from Japanese fighters. He then, when he could no longer get across to the ship, went on a boat into the oil soaked and burning water to rescue the sailors. He was severely burned on his back and torso when a Japanese Zero fired at his boat and caused him to lose balance, throwing him into the burning water. He managed to regain footing into the boat where he then rescued the two people he had come for and then had to be rowed ashore, due to the fact he had lost conciousness. He was awarded the Silver Star while still unconcious and remained in the burn ward at a naval hospital until mid 1942. Category:Characters